Ministry of External Affairs
Digital Villages to be set up by India in four ASEAN countries
Kolkata, 29th November, 2018.
Pilot digital villages will be set up in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam, together called the CLMV countries, as a part of Indo-ASEAN digital connectivity plan which is being focussed upon, stated Shri Anurag Bhushan, Joint Secretary – ASEAN-ML in the Union Ministry of External Affairs at Kolkata today. While speaking at a session on ‘Indo-ASEAN Partnership: Ensuring peace and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond’ organised by Indian Chamber of Commerce, Shri Bhushan also said, this digital connectivity will not only include fibre optics, but also showcase hardware technologies,software capabilities like e-services and various packages. Depending upon the acceptance and market for it, further expansion will be deliberated upon, said the Joint Secretary. Further speaking about CLMV, Shri Bhushan mentioned, healthcare, education and pharmaceuticals are the three prospective sectors that has been identified in the CMLV initiative by EXIM Bank in association with the Ministry of Commerce for which Project Development Fund of Rs 500 crores has been approved. Special Purpose Vehicles has been set up by EXIM Bank to implement projects in these sectors.
While speaking in the session, Shri Bhushan elaborately explained the basic principles of the Act East Policy which are based on the three pillars of : a) culture including educational and people-to-people ties, b) connectivity including political-strategic ties and c) commerce including trade ties. Government is giving importance to people-to-people links for which a network of universities and libraries, increased number of scholarships , exchanges of faculty members, students and young leaders within the ASEAN community is being worked out, he added. Further, in the ASEAN –India Commemorative Summit held in January, 2018, PM Shri Narendra Modi and other leaders decided to mark 2019 as Year of Tourists for which a number of calendar events to encourage people-to-people ties and tourism has been planned, he mentioned.
Speaking about enhancing infrastructural connectivity, the Joint Secretary mentioned the India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway project which may further be extended to three more countries and will be followed by the motor vehicles agreement which is “being looked at positively”. In the commerce front, Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership  was mentioned by Shri Bhushan. He stated, 11 chapters of the treaty have already been finalised by the six dialogue partners, that is, Australia, China, India, Japan, Korea and New Zealand. “We are determined to ensure a balanced, equitable and beneficial RCEP to all the participating countries in all the sectors”, stated the Joint Secretary .
This apart, the Joint Secretary urged business chambers and industries to start integrating regional value chains in the ASEAN region that will boost Indian industries. The dignitaries who participated in the session included Dr. Myo Thant, Central Executive Committee Member of Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry , Prof. Suthiphand Chirathivat, Executive Director, ASEAN Studies Centre of Chulalongkorn University of Thailand, Shri Subhashis Dhal, Regional Head of EXIM Bank and several other ASEAN experts and scholars.